Space

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ISS-30 Star trail composite

SueSueDio

I'm not up to date on this thread so someone may have already mentioned this, but here it is anyway!

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/after-37-years-voyager-has-fired-up-its-trajectory-thrusters/

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Investigating Mars: Melas Chasma




Melas Chasma is part of the largest canyon system on Mars, Valles Marineris. At only 563 km long (349 miles) it is not the longest canyon, but it is the widest. Located in the center of Valles Marineris, it has depths up to 9 km below the surrounding plains, and is the location of many large landslide deposits, as will as layered materials and sand dunes.

There is evidence of both water and wind action as modes of formation for many of the interior deposits. Today's image covers part of the floor of the canyon. At the top of the image is one of the many hills found on the floor in this region.

The linear grooved surface is part of a landslide deposit. Melas Chasma has many large landslide regions. Landslide deposits often have grooved surfaces with the grooves parallel to the direction of movement as the slide occurred. The ends of the landslide typically have a lobate edge, and will flow around large preexisting landforms.

The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 69000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions.

Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all.

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Space Station Transits the Moon



The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon at roughly five miles per second, Dec. 2, 2017, in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Onboard are NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

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Cloud Streets in the Sea of Okhotsk



Frigid air blowing from Eastern Russia created dramatic cloud formations over the Sea of Okhotsk in late November, 2017. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the stunning scene on November 25.

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Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft at Sunrise



NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo spacecraft at sunrise, prior to its departure from the International Space Station at 8:11 a.m., Dec. 6, 2017. Expedition 53 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA gave the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm the command to release Cygnus.

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NASA's Science Aircraft Flies Over Thomas Fire in California



During an engineering flight test of the Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft shows smoke plumes, from roughly 65,000 feet, produced by the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California, around 1 p.m. PST on Dec. 5th, 2017.

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This false-color image is composed of 15 images taken through three color filters by NASA's Galileo spacecraft as it passed through the Earth-Moon system on Dec. 8, 1992.

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Science From the Moon’s Shadow



While total solar eclipses happen about once every 18 months somewhere on Earth, the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse was rare in its long path over land. The total eclipse lasted about 90 minutes, from the time it first reached the Oregon coast to when it left the North American mainland in South Carolina. This long, uninterrupted path over land provided scientists with a rare chance to investigate the Sun and its influence on Earth in ways that aren’t usually possible.

Scientists study the Sun's corona from space with instruments called coronagraphs, which use a metal disk to block out the Sun’s face. But the innermost regions of the Sun’s corona in white light are only visible during total solar eclipses, when scientists are able to measure the lower corona in great detail. On Dec. 11, 2017, researchers discussed initial findings based on observations of the Sun and on Earth gathered during the August solar eclipse that stretched across North America.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/science-from-the-moon-s-shadow

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Chandra Reveals the Elementary Nature of Cassiopeia A



Due to its unique evolutionary status, Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is one of the most intensely studied of these supernova remnants.

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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of northern Meridiani Planum shows faults that have disrupted layered deposits.

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Kepler-90 System Compared to Our Solar System (Artist's Concept)

Timshel_

A favorite moon picture.

Timshel_

MeeseeksAndDestroy wrote: »

Did anyone else watch the SpaceX Falcon-9 launch today? First time re-using the booster.

Got a few feed notices, but didn't get to see any of it. Stories say it went well. You know NASA and the military are very interested in reusing components for cost savings.

Timshel_

MeeseeksAndDestroy wrote: »

Timshel_ wrote: »

MeeseeksAndDestroy wrote: »

Did anyone else watch the SpaceX Falcon-9 launch today? First time re-using the booster.

Got a few feed notices, but didn't get to see any of it. Stories say it went well. You know NASA and the military are very interested in reusing components for cost savings.

Yes all went well, I think I stopped watching after dragon detached. Supposedly the booster costs like $40 million for a $60 million project

That is the part I like. A big thing with today's launch is to overcome the explosion things from earlier. It is a step towards confidence in the process and equipment for reuse. There is such little margin for error in all of this so far, reusing space traveled crafts opens a whole door to degraded tolerances and specs. I think it will be years before the process is perfected and they know what typical types of issues they will need to address to refurb equipment for SAFE and RELIABLE reuse. Even a $30 million dollar savings is moot if the whole $60 million dollar project goes poof in an amazing fireball.

Timshel_

MeeseeksAndDestroy wrote: »

Very true. And all went well today but I really don't think I'd like to be on the first manned space craft reusing equipment.

Well, if you fly you already do this. It isn't the altitude that kills you, it is the sudden stop at the end of falling. Or, burning up in a painful fiery ball in the atmosphere. Or, having your lungs explode and die from asphyxiation in the abyss of space. Reuse will come to fruition at some point when space travel is common place. Not for at least another 100 years in my mind.

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Layered Ice Near the South Pole of Mars



The two largest ice sheets in the inner solar system are here on Earth, Antarctica and Greenland. The third largest is at the South Pole of Mars and a small part of it is shown in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Much like the terrestrial examples, this ice sheet is layered and scientists refer to it as the South Polar layered deposits.

The ice layers contain information about past climates on Mars and deciphering this record has been a major goal of Mars science for decades. This slope, near the ice sheet's edge, shows the internal layers that have this climate record. With stereo images, we can tell the heights of these layers so we can measure their thickness and try to unravel the climatic information they contain.